Our last day in paradise, we have two places where we haven’t gotten the shots yet so that was our plan to do that first thing in the morning. After the so-so breakfast, we went back to our room to change.

Our first photo spot: the hammock on the water. When we got there early in the morning, the water level was starting to raise but haven’t up to the hammock yet. However, once you sit on it, your weight will pull it down and will get wet. Thus, I went back to change into my swimwear for those photos.

Afterwards, we went back to our room again to shower, change, and then ready to move our room. Standard checkout time is at noon but as a Platinum member, I asked for a late check-out since our flight was at 7:25 PM to Tahiti and our flight home was at 10:40 PM (we want to stay as last as we could in Bora Bora rather than hanging out in Tahiti airport). I was hoping for a day room like at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso where we could hang out at the resort and then take a shower before our departure. I was quite surprised that the St. Regis Bora Bora arranged another “villa” for us where we could stay till our departure!

I thought it was so kind of them to offer that and I was thinking the “villa” to be one of the beach villas. Instead, it turned out to be an overwater bungalow which the size and layout exactly like the ones we stayed the past two nights! It was like having a full day for free! The difference was the view, we were given room 317 over the other pontoon of overwater bungalows with the view facing the beach.

The left side of the picture all the way there is the beach where we had our breakfast at.

After our luggage arrived at the new villa, we walked to the beach to get the bikes again (our bikes were left at our old villa) and then biked to the spa – the second photo spot. We walked in and asked the spa receptionist if we could go in to take a few photos. She said absolutely.

Here, the spot where you can see Mt. Otemanu and where the movie poster “Couples Retreat” was taken at 🙂

After a few snaps, we walked to the bridge for a 360 degrees view of the lagoon where the guys had snorkeled in.

Peter was sitting there, can you see him? He finished feeding the fishes with the leftover fish food and saying goodbye to his newly best friend haha!

We managed to visit both photo spots and got our photos before lunch time. Then, we truly relax and enjoy our every last minutes of paradise at our new villa. Jeffrey did his jump into the water right from the overwater bungalows photos.

For lunch, we ordered from the room service menu, what’s better view to have lunch than right on our overwater bungalow’s deck? The in-room dining menu was almost the same as Aparima Bar with a delivery charge….I think it was like 2500 xpf so not too bad!

I ordered the curry chicken and it tasted so much better than that Thai sauce beef! The best was it came with a big bowl of white rice, it was filling! The guys ordered burgers. Our lunch including delivery charge was $158.56 with this view and finished our own Rotui mango juice 😀

We just hang out at our villa, chat about what’s our favorite of this trip, life, travel memories, etc. Peter and Jeffrey’s favorite was the St. Regis Bora Bora, everything from the superb service to the saber the champagne. They also enjoyed Sofitel Moorea where they could snorkel right off their overwater bungalow. If they were to come back the next time, they would visit Moorea again because they could snorkel from their deck, something that they weren’t able to do in Bora Bora. My favorite hum…the views at the Le Meridien, the service at the St. Regis, and our private lagoon cruise where we had lunch right on the water. Time flew by at paradise!

The overwater bungalow right next to ours:

It was almost time to go, as the sun was setting, we had one last photo with the St. Regis Bora Bora sign. The butler team waved us goodbye, gave us bottled water, and a shell necklace. Goodbye Bora Bora, when will we see you again?

Once we landed Tahiti airport, checked in, dropped off luggage, and then to that pearl shop were we always buy pearl jewelry each time. I bought a pair of earrings for my mom. We saw a purple pearl pendant that was super unique but it was set in yellow gold so I don’t like it. If it was set in white gold, I think I would end up getting it….it was like almost $1000 USD! Jason keep trying to convince me to get it since it’s so unique but just not meant to be 😛 The store owner was so busy filling out those tax refund forms, she has to manually fill them out one by one so it took some time. Then, I have to take the form over to custom to get it stamp and then return to the store owner. We were right on the edge of the boarding time!

The security line was short and moving fast as well as the immigration line so we were at the “gate” in less than 10 minutes. We still have time to check out the stores inside the terminal (nothing good to buy though). When we were at the gate, I heard some people talking about delay. What? I went up to the gate agent and asked. He said the plane coming in was strike by lightning and now the technicians are checking for structural damages so the departing time has delayed to at around 1 AM!!! I don’t get why United didn’t tell us when we were checking in nor any notification of the delay until I went up to ask! Thankfully with our Priority Pass, we hang out in the Air Tahiti Nui Lounge located upstairs with air conditioning, some snacks, and Rotui mango juice! It was way more comfortable there and have free wifi to kill time than down at the “open-air” terminal.

As 1 AM approaching, there was still no update. Then, an announcement that finally we can board! We rushed downstairs to board and I was super sleepy! We sat on the plane and the pilot said just some paperwork left and then we can depart. Guess what, I fell asleep and then all suddenly woke up by another announcement that we need to deplane as part of the “process”. We could leave our stuff in the plane and then will board again once the plane is cleared. I looked at the time, I slept for an hour and the plane didn’t move an inch >.< We all got off the plane and wait at the gate again. Wait and wait and wait…another hour passed and we finally can board again! This time, for real, we finally departed Tahiti and that was like 3 AM! We were all super exhausted! Of course, we didn’t make our connecting flight at San Francisco and they rebooked us to the last flight out of San Francisco to Boston at 11:20 PM arrived the next day at 8 AM. We were supposed to be home at 10 PM…..anyways we got home safely! The “United Care” website showed our compensation to be $100 only…what? Missing one day of work and all those inconveniences for $100? I emailed United directly and they offered $200 in compensation. Sigh, I really have bad luck with long-distance trips to the Pacific/Asia! But that won’t stop me from traveling!!!